Applying for a change to planning permission

Plan­ning Advice Note

Apply­ing to change an exist­ing plan­ning permission

Pub­lished: Septem­ber 2022

Chan­ging a plan­ning permission

After a plan­ning per­mis­sion has been issued, there are 4 ways that the per­mis­sion can be changed.

Most changes to a plan­ning per­mis­sion require an applic­ant to pay fees, for the applic­a­tion to be advert­ised and neigh­bours to be noti­fied so that the pub­lic have an oppor­tun­ity to make rep­res­ent­a­tions and com­ment on the changes.

Time lim­its for permission

All plan­ning per­mis­sion is gran­ted for a peri­od of 3 years from the decision unless the plan­ning author­ity decides a short­er or longer peri­od will apply.

The time peri­od for an exist­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion can­not be exten­ded without an applic­ant pay­ing fees and the plan­ning author­ity noti­fy­ing neigh­bours and advert­ising the applic­a­tion so the pub­lic can com­ment on it.

The table on the next page sum­mar­ises the four ways that a plan­ning applic­a­tion can be changed as well as the cost to an applicant.

Fur­ther advice

This advice note has been pro­duced to sum­mar­ise how changes can be made to a plan­ning per­mis­sion. It is not comprehensive.

If you want to change an exist­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion and are unsure what you need to do, you should con­tact your loc­al author­ity plan­ning depart­ment who will con­firm what inform­a­tion you need to sup­ply and to whom.

If your plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, you can con­tact the plan­ning team for advice at planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk or Tel: 01479 873535

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The four ways a plan­ning per­mis­sion can be changed:

Type of Applic­a­tion	Fee pay­able	The way to ask for changes	Neigh­bour noti­fic­a­tion and pub­lic adverts	Factors which may be taken into account	Time lim­it for implementation
1 Vari­ation to exist­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion (Sec­tion 64 variation¹)	None	Let­ter mak­ing the request to plan­ning author­ity who gran­ted plan­ning permission.	No	Can only be applied to what the plan­ning author­ity con­siders to be a non-mater­i­al vari­ation (ie small and insig­ni­fic­ant changes).	Does not change the time peri­od of the plan­ning permission.
2 Sec­tion 42 Applic­a­tion² (To change con­di­tions attached to the ori­gin­al plan­ning per­mis­sion. Applic­a­tions to change con­di­tions with time lim­its will no longer be accepted.)	Fixed fee, cur­rently £202	Let­ter mak­ing the request to your loc­al author­ity plan­ning depart­ment. The applic­a­tion may be called in and determ­ined by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA).	Yes	The plan­ning author­ity only con­siders the ques­tion of the con­di­tions on which plan­ning per­mis­sion should be granted.	3 years from approv­al unless plan­ning author­ity decide that there should be a short­er or longer period³
3 Renew­al of Permission4 (Where there is an unim­ple­men­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion on which the time lim­it has not yet expired.)	The appro­pri­ate fee for an applic­a­tion for full plan­ning permission	Let­ter mak­ing the request to your loc­al author­ity plan­ning depart­ment. The applic­a­tion may be called in and determ­ined by the CNPA.	Yes	Determ­ined as if it were a new applic­a­tion so any changes to the devel­op­ment plan or changes to oth­er rel­ev­ant factors since the ori­gin­al per­mis­sion will be taken into account.	3 years from approv­al unless plan­ning author­ity decide that there should be a short­er or longer period³
4 New applic­a­tion for full plan­ning permission	The appro­pri­ate fee for an applic­a­tion for full plan­ning permission	Nor­mal full plan­ning applic­a­tion to loc­al author­ity. The applic­a­tion may be called in and determ­ined by the CNPA.	Yes	Should be determ­ined in accord­ance with the devel­op­ment plan unless mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions indic­ate otherwise.	3 years from approv­al unless plan­ning author­ity decide that there should be a short­er or longer period³

¹ Sec­tion 64, Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended ² Sec­tion 42, Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended ³ Sec­tion 58(2), Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended 4 Reg­u­la­tion 11.1, The Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Pro­ced­ure) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2013